About us
The Centre for Documentary Research at QUB was launched in April 2017. It is an initiative that offers a space to debate issues and organise activities around the study and practice of documentary film. Our team in interdisciplinary, with interests in Film, Languages, English and History. We are scholars, students, curators and practitioners of documentary film, with interests including mental health, conflict, experimental film, Brazilian protest films, ethnographic film, visual arts, new media and interactivity.
The Centre for Documentary Research runs workshops, screenings, seminars, and conferences; contribute to publications; and, of course, make documentary films.
Upcoming events
26.11.2025 / True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital... / Screening
Screening at 3:30, Queen's Film Theatre Screen 2, with introduction by Professor Maeve McCusker (QUB)
True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in the Last Century, when Dr Frantz Fanon Was Head of the Fifth Ward between 1953 and 1956 (Abdenour Zahzah, Algeria/France 2024, 90 min., Arabic and French with English subtitles)
In 1953, Frantz Fanon accepted a senior clinical position at a psychiatric hospital in Blida, Algeria. The hospital and its treatments reproduced the discrimination, poverty, and violent racism commonplace in colonial Algeria at that time. Encouraged by his experiences working with radical psychiatrists like Francesc Tosquelles at St-Alban, Fanon set about emancipating or 'disalienating' the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital, while also become more active in his support for Algerian resistance to French colonial rule. Using fiction and docu-drama techniques, the film develops directly on Zahzar's earlier documentary project on this subject, Frantz Fanon, mémoire d’asile (2002).
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03.12.2025 / Armagh Stories / Screening and Q&A
Screening at 3:30, Queen's Film Theatre Screen 2, followed by Q&A and drinks reception
On the event of the retirement of Professor Cahal McLaughlin from Queen's University Belfast, the CDR is proud to present a screening of his 2015 film Armagh Stories, which is one output from the extensive and groundbreaking Prisons Memory Archive
This documentary film tells the stories of some of those who passed through the gates of Armagh Gaol, the mainly female prison that operated during the conflict in Northern Ireland / the North of Ireland. Using protocols of co-ownership, inclusivity and life-storytelling, the film includes prison staff, prisoners, teachers, a solicitor, doctor and chaplain. The film has been screened internationally and locally, where it has been used by community groups to facilitate discussions on how to address the legacy of a violent past.
Followed by a conversation with the filmmaker and Q&A moderated by Dr Laura Aguiar
Collaborations
We have established collaborative relationships with local and international groups:
The Centre for Creative Ethnography
Documentary Film Institute, San Francisco State University
Journals of Interest
Contact us